


Someone to Stay

by liastark



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Kylo Ren Has Issues, M/M, Mental Health Issues, References to Hamlet, Rey is a foster child, Rey is gonna help him work through them, background stormpilot, grumpy old man Luke, kylo and rey are the same age, this is gonna be pretty fluffy but sad at the same time, tlj Luke is a teacher
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 11:43:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13247535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liastark/pseuds/liastark
Summary: Rey is asked to tutor Kylo Ren, who has a reputation for having a very bad temper. At first, he's almost impossible to work with and she thinks that he's insufferable. Eventually, after they manage to settle their differences, she finds that there might be more to him than just anger.





	Someone to Stay

**Author's Note:**

> The reylo high school AU that I haven't seen anybody ask for but I'm delivering. And for the purpose of this AU, we're gonna pretend that Kylo, Hux, and Phasma are all normal names someone would have in modern times even though they really aren't.
> 
> Also there's a discussion of Hamlet in this chapter to kind of set up Kylo's character and it's gonna be referenced to a few times later but no real knowledge of the play is required since the parts that you need to know are explained.

"What the hell did you do to Kylo Ren?" Finn asked as he set his tray down and took the empty seat next to Rey. The entire table was actually vacant except for the two of them, as it was during every lunch period.   
   
Rey looked up from her food in confusion at his words. She'd been in the middle of chewing so she just scrunched up her face to communicate that she had no idea what he was talking about.   
   
"It looks like the guy is trying to burn a hole through your head," Finn told her, nodding warily to the other side of the cafeteria.   
   
"I've never had a conversation with Kylo Ren in my life," Rey said after she'd finished chewing, disbelieving of her friend's statement as she turned her head to face the direction Finn had gestured to. But, much to her surprise, she found that Kylo Ren was undoubtedly staring directly at her.    
   
She almost flinched at the anger in his gaze and the intensity didn't let up when their eyes locked. No one else at his table seemed to notice how agitated the pale, raven-haired boy was. Or maybe they were aware but were just used to it and didn't pay it any mind anymore. The latter was more likely, considering how Kylo Ren had a history of having quite the bad temper.   
   
Kylo was the one to break the eye contact after she raised her eyebrows at him in question. He shoved his chair back with an unnecessary amount of force, which caused it to topple over. The loud sound of it hitting the floor echoed throughout the lunch room and caught the attention of everyone in it. It got eerily quiet for a second as Kylo stormed off, but the chatter was quick to resume after he had disappeared from sight. It wasn't the first time Kylo had caused a scene and it most likely wouldn't be the last, so everyone besides Rey and Finn carried on with their conversations like nothing shocking had happened at all.    
   
"Um," Finn said, his plastic spork poised halfway to his mouth where he had paused at the commotion. "You really don't know what that was about?"   
   
Rey blinked at the empty spot where Kylo had been, dumbfounded at what she could have done to warrant such a violent display. "Not a clue," she told Finn as she turned back around to finish her lunch.   
   
"Maybe you bumped into him in the hallway and just don't remember," he offered as a weak explanation.   
   
"Maybe," she replied, but she was doubtful. She couldn't imagine anyone being that bitter about accidentally colliding in the school's crowded hallways. Though she did recall hearing stories about Kylo getting worked up over what sounded like trivial things before, so she supposed it was possible.   
   
"I think I should probably walk you to the rest of your classes," Finn said concernedly.   
   
"I can handle myself," Rey replied in a tone that was more playful than it was defensive. She made sure that she gave Finn a small smile after the retort, appreciative of how he always tried to look out for her.   
   
"Against a sane person you can," he argued gently. "But this is Kylo Ren we're talking about. The dude is crazy."   
   
Rey couldn't exactly argue with that. Not that she wanted to defend that Kylo Ren was a rational person, but even if she did want to, there was too much evidence towards the contrary. With Kylo Ren's reputation, Rey knew it would be foolish to proceed without some caution now that she had his attention for some unknown reason.   
    
"Just for today," she begrudgingly relented, still not keen on the idea of needing a bodyguard. She prided herself in her ability to fight her own battles. Finn opened his mouth to protest, but Rey cut him off. "I'm sure someone else will have pissed him off by tomorrow, Finn."   
   
Finn sighed and Rey could tell he was going to try to push it more, so she asked him about how his history project was going to change the subject. His whole demeanor suddenly shifted as he became visibly flustered.   
   
"What was your partner's name again?" Rey asked, even though she definitely knew it with how much Finn talked about them.   
   
"You know that I got partnered with Poe Dameron," Finn muttered bashfully.   
   
"I think you mean Poe DAMNeron," she corrected, a teasing lilt in her voice. She was well aware of the crush Finn had developed on the captain of the football team.   
   
"I hate you," Finn stated as he rolled his eyes. The words lost their effect as Rey watched him fight to keep a grin of his face.   
   
"You love me," she said, scoffing in fake indignation.   
   
Finn threw a fry from his plate in her direction and Rey let it hit her. In their laughter that followed, the matter of an angry Kylo Ren was temporarily forgotten.   
   
    
    
    
    
    
Finn escorted her to each of her classes for the rest of that day like they had agreed and though they spotted the group of people Kylo Ren was usually always seen walking the halls with, there was no sign of the boy himself until her last class. But that was inevitable, since she and Kylo shared the English class.   
   
Her eyes found him almost immediately after she stepped into the classroom. He was sitting in his usual seat located in one of the back corners of the room and appeared to be intently focused on the surface of his desk. She paused in front of the doorway, not sure what to expect. His eyes flickered towards where she stood but his head stayed casted down. The way he seemed to be averting his eyes to not look directly at her made her think that his lack of presence in the hallways between classes hadn’t been an accident. It felt possible that he was trying to avoid her.   
   
The thought made her even more confused about the situation than she had been before. From the things that she’d heard about him, Kylo Ren was not the type of person who’d try to evade someone who he thought had wronged him. She had fully been expecting a confrontation of some sort.   
   
Rey took her seat in the front row hesitantly, suddenly unsure of how to conduct herself. Luckily, the teacher came into the room and saved her from overthinking what Kylo trying to steer clear of her meant for a brief moment.   
   
A smile tugged at Rey’s lips as she watched Mr. Skywalker make his way to the front of the room. She heard him grumbling something unintelligible under his breath as he passed her and she looked down at his feet, curious about the odd scuffling noise his shoes were making. She had to lift a hand to cover her mouth so she wouldn’t laugh out loud when she saw that he was wearing slippers. Even though it wasn’t the only time he’d showed up in them, Rey couldn’t help but be just as amused as she had been when he had first done it.   
   
Mr. Skywalker was Rey’s favorite teacher. Sure, he was a little grumpy in his old age, but not to the point where Rey would say he was mean. Well, sometimes he could be mean, but it was usually in a sarcastic manner. Rey knew that there was a good portion of the student body that disliked him because they didn’t appreciate his sarcasm and the way he would jokingly make jabs at his pupils. To Rey, it prevented the subjects he was teaching from becoming completely and utterly boring like they were in almost every other class.   
   
“What are you all looking at?” Mr. Skywalker asked when he reached his desk and everyone’s eyes were on him. He gestured to the white board on the wall behind him. “Can you not read?”   
   
Rey blinked a few times to clear her head. She’d been so distracted with whatever grudge Kylo had against her that she hadn’t even noticed that the lesson plan was written up front. Feeling off-kilter, Rey pulled out her copy of Shakespeare's _Hamlet_. They were supposed to spend a majority of the class reading on their own and then discuss as a class.   
   
Usually, Rey didn’t have any trouble becoming immersed in the play that they were studying since she was genuinely enjoying the story. But for those thirty minutes, she probably had to reread each of the character’s lines about three times for them to sink in. Her mind was elsewhere. She couldn’t stop being fixated on Kylo Ren and what she could have possibly done to him that would make him not even want to confront her.   
   
When Mr. Skywalker called out for them to stop, she knew she wasn’t as far into the play as the rest of the class. When he asked for someone to share their thoughts on what they had read, Rey sunk further down into her seat in hopes that he wouldn’t call on her when no one volunteered. But much to her surprise, someone did raise their hand.   
   
Mr. Skywalker sighed before nodding for the person to go. From the expression of distaste on his face, Rey knew who was about to offer up their opinion without even having to turn around. She fought back a groan when Hux’s voice rang throughout the room. Honestly, she would have rather she have had to try and muster up something to say than be forced to listen to whatever was about to come out of his entitled mouth.   
   
“I think Hamlet overreacts to everything,” Hux stated, and before he could continue, he was interrupted by someone scoffing loudly. Everyone’s attention shifted towards the source of the sound of incredulity and Rey was taken aback when she realized the disruptive noise had come from Kylo Ren. Kylo and Hux were close friends as far as she knew and Kylo had never given any kind of input into anything they’d discussed before.   
   
“Do you want to debate with Hux on his observation, Kylo?” Mr. Skywalker asked after the whole class, including the teacher himself, had sat in shocked silence for what Rey thought must have been almost half a minute. Kylo looked reluctant but there must have been something in him that was pushing him to argue against Hux’s statement because he actually sat up straighter before he started to dispute.   
   
“To label Hamlet as someone who simply overreacts is a shallow view on a complex character,”  Kylo said, not looking at anyone, focusing instead on a pencil he twirled in his hand. “He isn’t over-reacting; he’s just reacting to what are some pretty horrific circumstances.”   
   
Rey watched as Kylo made brief eye contact with Mr. Skywalker after he’d finished and felt like she’d intruded on a private moment. Something had passed between the two of them with his words. It left a sad look on Mr. Skywalker’s face and before she could wonder what that was about, Hux started talking again.   
   
“Circumstances that have made him crazy,” Hux implored. “He’s not in his right mind. He’s obviously not capable of reacting rationally. Look at how he accidently killed Polonius instead of  Claudius for an example.”   
   
Rey couldn’t help but roll her eyes. It was obvious that Hux had completely missed the point Kylo had made about Hamlet being too complex of a character for simple labels. When she glanced back over at Kylo, she saw that he had stopped the spinning motions of his writing utensil and now clutched it tightly in a fist. Despite the purposeful blank look on his face, she could tell that something about what Hux had said had upset him in the way his knuckles were almost white.   
   
“He’s not crazy,” Rey found herself saying before she had really thought about it. Kylo’s head snapped up to look at her and she felt everyone else’s eyes on her as well. She swallowed and instantly wanted that to retract the statement, but something about the curious way Kylo was now observing her spurred her to go on. “A crazy person usually doesn’t realize that they’re crazy. Hamlet knows that he’s acting crazy and is using it to his benefit.”   
   
“But could you really blame him if he does end up going a little crazy by the end?” Kylo asked after she had finished, his eyes boring into hers. She was sure that he was talking about something that went beyond the book itself. And in that moment, she wished that she knew him enough to be able to understand what he was truly trying to say.   
   
“No, I couldn’t. It would be understandable after what he’s had to deal with,” Rey answered. And though it came out hesitant because she wasn’t completely aware of what the real meaning of the conversation was, she meant it. Kylo got a contemplative look on his face as he continued to analyze her and she felt her skin start grow hot under his scrutiny.   
   
Mr. Skywalker suddenly started to clap his hands and Rey actually jumped, startled out of whatever had been transpiring between her and Kylo. When she turned back around to face the front, she saw that her teacher had a genuine smile on his face. She could count the number of those she’d seen from him on one hand. His eyes went back and forth between her and Kylo a few times and he looked oddly pleased.   
   
“That was the best discussion this class has ever had,” Mr. Skywalker announced after he’d finished his applause. “And because of that I’ll let you guys leave ten minutes early today. But if any of you get me in trouble for it I’m claiming that you all overthrew me and left on your own.”   
   
The class cheered and everyone begun to pack away their stuff. As Rey was sweeping all of her materials back into her backpack, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and found Mr. Skywalker standing next to her desk.   
   
“Not you, Rey,” He told her, the smile gone from his face and replaced by a serious expression. “I have something to ask of you. Can you stay back for a few minutes?”   
   
Rey nodded and went back to gathering her things. She wasn’t worried that she was in some kind of trouble until she noticed that Kylo Ren was also not filing out of the classroom with the rest of their peers. It suddenly occurred to her that Mr. Skywalker might want to talk to her about whatever Kylo thought she’d done to him.   
   
She watched as Kylo took quick, purposeful strides up to Mr. Skywalker who was now seated at his desk. The two of them spoke in hushed voices that she couldn’t quite make out, but the conversation appeared to be heated on Kylo’s part. It ended abruptly when Kylo turned on his heel and Rey witnessed him storm out of a room for the second time that day. He didn’t look at her as he made his exit.   
   
Mr. Skywalker had started to shuffle through some miscellaneous papers when Rey hesitantly walked up to him after Kylo was gone. He set them aside upon her approach and folded his hands in front of him. Neither of them spoke as he seemed to carefully be thinking over how to phrase what he had to say and it was making a nervous feeling start to build in Rey’s stomach.   
   
“You were a tutor last year, correct?” He finally asked.   
   
“Yes, I was,” Rey answered.   
   
“But you didn’t sign up to be one this year. Why is that?”   
   
“It’s not that I didn’t like tutoring,” she said, feeling the need to clarify that she hadn’t quit the work because it was too difficult. “I just unfortunately got too busy for it.”   
   
He got a grim look on his face. “Busy how?”   
   
“I got a job. It takes up most of my time now,” she explained.   
   
"That makes me hesitant to ask this of you, but I think you're his best option," he told her with reluctance in his voice.   
   
"You want me to tutor someone?" She asked, having caught on to what his line of questioning was leading towards.   
   
"Yes," he confirmed. "My nephew."   
   
"Who is your nephew?" She enquired, though she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.   
   
"Kylo Ren."   
   
Rey glanced behind her at the door Kylo had just stomped out of only minutes ago and then back at Mr. Skywalker with an eyebrow raised in question. Judging by Kylo's attitude towards her today, she was guessing that he wasn't exactly on board with his Uncle's plan. Mr. Skywalker seemed to sense that she was thinking about Kylo's display at the end of class.    
   
"I know that he can be... difficult," he said solemnly. "I'll pay you double the usual amount if you're up for it."   
   
From what she'd heard and seen of Kylo Ren's behavior, she felt like saying that he could be difficult was an understatement. But since Mr. Skywalker was apparently Kylo's Uncle, Rey could understand the word choice. Though hearing a less negative description of Kylo than she was used to didn't make her feel any more qualified to be the one to help him in his studies.    
   
"Why me?" She asked curiously.   
   
"The students you tutored last year showed some of the best improvement out of all the kids in the school's whole tutoring program," he told her factually. "And the teachers who oversee the program said that while you were very patient and kind to those you helped, you also gave them the necessary push they needed to succeed."   
   
Rey nodded, accepting the explanation even though she still wasn't assured that she was the correct person for this task. Mr. Skywalker leaned back in his chair as Rey took a moment to mull things over in her head. Despite her feelings of inadequacy and the fact that she already had such a small amount of free time, she was extremely compelled to say yes. She was desperately trying to save up money for when she aged out of the foster care system in a few months, and it was making Mr. Skywalker's offer to pay her double extremely enticing.   
   
There was that part of her that had wanted to understand Kylo during their conversation about _Hamlet_ pushing her to say yes as well.   
   
"Alright," she conceded. "I'll do it."   
   
Mr. Skywalker's face broke out into another rare smile. "Excellent," he said. "I think you'll be good for him. Give him some balance."   
   
Before she could ask what he meant by that, he was pulling out a pen to write down when she would be free so he could coordinate with Kylo and get their first session set up. As Rey rattled off the days and times that worked for her, she wondered what exactly it was that she was signing up for. 

**Author's Note:**

> Yep, Luke ships it in this. No destruction of huts at seeing them together this time around.
> 
> Also, the reason for Kylo's reaction to Hux's statement will be explained in future chapters, as well as the reason for why the fact that he's related to Luke isn't common knowledge. The reason for his extreme behavior all together will just get explained soon, I promise.
> 
> Let me know what you think of the way I’ve portrayed the characters and relationships so far!


End file.
